Impacts of Extreme Climates on Vegetation at Middle-to-High Latitudes in Asia
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
It is of great interest to study the response of vegetation to climate, especially in Asia, which has a large land area. This manuscript used GIMMS LAI3g and GLASS LAI data to compare and analyze the vegetation growth in mid- and high-latitudes in Asia in recent Four decades under the background of climate change, which is a work-intensive and meaningful study. However, the overall quality of the manuscript in its current state does not yet meet the journal's requirements and needs a major review before it can be accepted.
following are some specific recommendations:
1) The whole manuscript needs to be further scientifically and academically, such as from the perspective of spatiotemporal analysis, rather than simply analyzing the current situation;
2) The data section needs to be supplemented with tables to illustrate the parameters and differences between the two data, which will be more visual;
3) Reference section requires new literature, especially in the last 5 years;
4) The overall structure of the manuscript is strange, Results and Discussion are confused, and parts of sections 3.2-3.4 are discussions, while the Discussion sections are more like the Conclusions, and the Conclusion sections also have new talks. It is recommended to restructure the paper to make it clearer;
5) Line 134-136, where is the reference? Who are they?
6) Line 296-298, please check the description of the subscripts, there are three subscripts and four describes.
Author Response
Reply to Reviewer 1:
Comments and Suggestions for Authors: It is of great interest to study the response of vegetation to climate, especially in Asia, which has a large land area. This manuscript used GIMMS LAI3g and GLASS LAI data to compare and analyze the vegetation growth in mid- and high-latitudes in Asia in recent Four decades under the background of climate change, which is a work-intensive and meaningful study. However, the overall quality of the manuscript in its current state does not yet meet the journal's requirements and needs a major review before it can be accepted.
Major comments:
- The whole manuscript needs to be further scientifically and academically, such as from the perspective of spatiotemporal analysis, rather than simply analyzing the current situation;
Reply:
In our study, we have investigated the temporal and spatial changes of extreme vegetation, extreme climate and vegetation response to extreme climate. Specifically, we found the trend and seasonal distribution of climate extremes and extreme vegetation by analyzing the years and months in which they occurred. In addition, we counted the times of the climate extremes and extreme vegetation occurred simultaneously which can help me to analysis the spatial characteristics of vegetation affected by climate extremes. We must apologize that this is not stated clearly in the section of Materials and Methods.
Revision:
Page 6, line 199-201: To analyze the temporal characteristics of climate extremes, such as the year and month when they occurred, we took the maximum and minimum value of the standardized anomalies throughout the time series for each grid as the research indexes.
Page 6, line 204-219: To study the spatial characteristics of climate extremes, such as the frequency distribution, we defined climate extremes by percentile……
- The data section needs to be supplemented with tables to illustrate the parameters and differences between the two data, which will be more visual;
Reply:
Thank you for your professional advices. We have added the table to describe the data we used in this study detailly and visually.
Revision:
Page 5 line. 186:
Table 1. Data used in this study.
|
Dataset |
Type |
Variables |
Resolution |
Frequency |
Record length |
Missing value of the land |
|
AgERA5 |
Reanalysis |
Temperature, precipitation |
0.1°× 0.1° |
Daily |
1979-present |
No |
|
GIMMS |
Satellite |
LAI |
1/12°×1/12° |
Semi-monthly |
1982-2016 |
Yes |
|
GLASS |
Satellite |
LAI |
0.05°×0.05° |
8 d |
1981-2018 |
No |
|
C3S |
Satellite |
Land cover class |
300m×300m |
Yearly |
1992-2020 |
No |
- Reference section requires new literature, especially in the last 5 years;
Reply:
We sincerely appreciate the valuable comments. We have checked the literature carefully and added more references, especially in the last 5 years, into Introduction, Materials and Methods and Discussion part in the revised manuscript.
Revision:
Page 2, line 92: I have added the work of Xiao et al., 2009 as a reference, and the serial number is 36.
Page 4, line 143: I have added the work of Hu et al., 2020 as a reference, and the serial number is 50.
Page 5, line 145: I have added the work of Semeraro et al., 2018, Seo et al., 2021, Deng et al., 2021, Peano et al., 2019, Li et al., 2023, and Piao et al., 2020 as references, and the serial number is 52 to 57.
Page 16, line 448: I have added the work of Quetin et al., 2017 as a reference, and the serial number is 63.
Page 16, line 451: I have added the work of Zhou et al., 2011, Wang et al., 2017, Kim et al., 2022, Francis et al., 2012, Cohen et al., 2014, and Kim et al.,2017 as references, and the serial number is 64 to 69.
Page 16, line 455: I have added the work of Zeppel et al., 2014 as a reference, and the serial number is 70.
Page 16, line 459: I have added the work of Wang et al., 2021 as a reference, and the serial number is 71.
Page 16, line 469: I have added the work of Li et al., 2022 as a reference, and the serial number is 75.
Related References:
Xiao, J. F.; Zhuang, Q. L.; Liang, E. Y; McGuire, A. D.; Moody, A.; Kicklighter, D. W.; Shao, X. M.; Melillo, J. M. Twentieth-century droughts and their impacts on terrestrial carbon cycling in China. Earth Interact 2009,13, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1175/2009EI275.1
Hu, Y.; Li, H.; Wu, D.; Chen, W.; Zhao, X.; Hou, M.; Li, A.; Zhu, Y. LAI-indicated vegetation dynamic in ecologically fragile region: a case study in the Three-North Shelter Forest program region of China. Ecol Ind 2021, 120,106932. https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.106932
Semeraro, T.; Mastroleo, G.; Pomes, A.; Luvisi, A.; Gissi, E.; Aretano, R. Modelling fuzzy combination of remote sensing vegetation index for durum wheat crop analysis. Comput Electron Agric 2019, 156, 684-692. https:/doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2018.12.027
Seo, H.; Kim, Y. Role of remotely sensed leaf area index assimilation in eco-hydrologic processes in different ecosystems over East Asia with Community Land Model version 4.5 – Biogeochemistry. J. Hydrol 2021, 594, 125957. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.125957
Deng, Y.; Wang, X. H.; Wang, K.; Ciais, P.; Tang, S.C.; Jin, L.; Li, L. L.; Piao, S. L. Responses of vegetation greenness and carbon cycle to extreme droughts in China. Agr Forest Meteorol 2021, 298, 108307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108307
Peano, D.; Materia, S.; Collalti, A.; Alessandri, A.; Anav, A.; Bombelli, A.; Gualdi, S. Global variability of simulated and observed vegetation growing season. J. Geophys Res Biogeosci 2019, 124, 3569-3587. https://doi.org/10.1029/ – 2018JG004881
Li, Y.; Li, Z. L.; Wu, H.; Zhou, C.; Liu, X.; Leng, P.; Yang, P.; Wu, W.; Tang, R.; Shang, G. F.;Ma, L. Biophysical impacts of earth greening can substantially mitigate regional land surface temperature warming. Nat Commun 2023, 14(1),121. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-35799-4
Piao, S.; Wang, X.H.; Park, T.; Chen, C.; Lian, X.; He, Y.; Bjerke, J. W.; Chen, A. P.; Ciais, P.; Tommervik, H.; et al. Characteristics, drivers and feedbacks of global greening. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ 2020. 1, 14–27. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-019-0001-x
Quetin, G. R.; Swann, A. L. S. Empirically Derived Sensitivity of Vegetation to Climate across Global Gradients of Temperature and Precipitation. J. Clim 2017, 30(15), 5835-5849. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0829.1
Zhou, B.; Gu, L.; Ding, Y.; Shao, L. The great 2008 Chinese ice storm: its socioeconomic–ecological impact and sustainability lessons learned. Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc 2011. 92, 47–60. https:/doi.org/10.1175/2010BAMS2857.1
Wang, X.; Huang, S.; Li, J.; Zhou, G.; Shi, L. Sprouting response of an evergreen broad‐leaved forest to a 2008 winter storm in Nanling Mountains, southern China. Ecosphere 2016, 7, https:/doi.org/e01395. 10.1002/ecs2.1395
Kim, J. S.; Kug, J. S.; Jeong, S.; Yoon, J. H.; Zeng, N.; Hong, J Y.; Jeong, J. H.; Zhao, Y.; Chen, X. Q.; Williams, M.; et al. Arctic warming-induced cold damage to East Asian terrestrial ecosystems. Commun Earth Environ 2022, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00343-7
Francis, J. A.; Vavrus, S. J. Evidence linking Arctic amplification to extreme weather in mid-latitudes. Geophys. Res. Lett 2012. 39, L06801. https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL051000
Cohen, J.; Screen, J. A.; Furtado, J. C.; Barlow, M.; Whittleston, D.; Coumou, D.; Francis, J.; Dethloff, K.; Entekhabi, D.; Overland, J.; Jones, J. Recent Arctic amplification and extreme mid-latitude weather. Nat. Geosci 2014. 7, 627–637. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2234
Kim, J. S.; Kug, J. S.; Jeong, S. J.; Jeong, S. J.; Michalak, A. M.; Schwalm, C. R.; Wei, Y. X.; Schaefer, K. Reduced North American terrestrial primary productivity linked to anomalous Arctic warming. Nat. Geosci 2017. 10, 572–576. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2986
Zeppel, M. J. B.; Wilks, J. V.; Lewis, J. D. Impacts of extreme precipitation and seasonal changes in precipitation on plants. Biogeosciences 2014, 11, 3083-3093. https:/doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-3083-2014
Wang, S.; Liu, Q.; Huang, C. Vegetation Change and Its Response to Climate Extremes in the Arid Region of Northwest China. Remote Sens. 2021, 13, 1230. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13071230
Li, G.; Chen, W.; Zhang, X.; Yang, Z.; Wang, Z.; Bi, P. Spatiotemporal changes and driving factors of vegetation in 14 different climatic regions in the global from 1981 to 2018. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022, 29(50), 75322-75337. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21138-5
- The overall structure of the manuscript is strange, Results and Discussion are confused, and parts of sections 3.2-3.4 are discussions, while the Discussion sections are more like the Conclusions, and the Conclusion sections also have new talks. It is recommended to restructure the paper to make it clearer;
Reply:
Thanks for your advices. we deleted the discussion statements in the Results and Conclusion, and discussed the mechanism of different climate extremes affecting vegetation in different areas, respectively.
Revision:
Page 7 line. 257-258: We deleted “This suggests that vegetation growth was significantly promoted when extreme warming occurred in this area.”
Page 8 line. 273-276: We deleted “Generally, it is shown by the GIMMS LAI that extreme warm and dry climates favored the growth of vegetation before or after the growing season in the high latitudes of Asia……”
Page 9 line. 305-306：We deleted “This suggests that extreme warming had a positive effect on trees growth in this area.”
Page 12 line. 351-352: We deleted “Vegetation in the high latitudes were more sensitive to extreme high temperatures, whereas that in the middle latitudes were more sensitive to extreme low temperatures.”
Page 12 line. 370: We deleted “showing a negative response of vegetation to extreme wetness over this area.”
Page 12 line 373-375: We deleted “GIMMS LAI and GLASS LAI, suggesting a prompting effect of extreme precipitation on vegetation growth in the dry area.”
Page 13 line. 384: We deleted “This was likely related to the increase in solar radiation.”
Page 14 line. 397-398: We deleted “It is suggested by the GIMMS LAI that extreme precipitation generally had a negative effect on vegetation over this area.”
Page 14 line. 403-405: We deleted “This negative response of vegetation to precipitation was caused by the corresponding positive effect of temperature (Figure 7) and is likely related to the corresponding change in solar radiation.”
Page 16 line. 443-461: We added “We found that extreme hot and/or dry conditions had positive impacts on forests at high latitudes……”
Page 17 line. 492-493: We deleted “The latter two situations may be related to corresponding precipitation changes in arid areas.”
Page 17 line 498-499: We deleted “This may be related to the synchronous increase in solar radiation and temperature in the area.”
- Line 154, where is the reference? Who are they?
Reply:
We are sorry for our carelessness. This sentence was revised.
Revision:
Page 5 line 154: Liang et al. [60] highlighted that these LAI products……
- Line 360-363, please check the description of the subscripts, there are three subscripts and four describes.
Reply:
Thanks for your careful checks. This sentence was revised.
Revision:
Page 12 line 360-363: The subscripts "L" and "S" represent values of the variables larger than the 95th percentile and smaller than 5th percentile, respectively.
Special thanks to you for your good comments.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Although this study covers a large area in Asia, however, the goal of the study is not clear!
1) Data and method is not clear
2) Authors claimed that they analysed compound events however, it is not clear how they calculate/measure four compound extreme temperature and precipitation types/indexes?
Author Response
Reply to Reviewer 2:
Although this study covers a large area in Asia, however, the goal of the study is not clear!
Reply:
Extreme climate has significant effects on terrestrial ecosystems and the environment. However, very few studies have focused on the impacts of extreme climates on terrestrial ecosystems at high latitudes. Therefore, the goal of the study is to analyze the responses of vegetation to extreme events at middle to high latitude which is essential for the long-term improvement of the monitoring of vegetation changes and ecosystem protection.
Revision:
Page 3 line 105-107: We added “Therefore, analyzing the responses of vegetation to extreme events at middle to high latitude is essential for the long-term improvement of the monitoring of vegetation changes and ecosystem protection.”
Major comments:
- Data and method are not clear
Reply:
We feel sorry for unclear data and method. We added a table to illustrate the parameters and differences between datasets. In addition, we explained the method of data processing and the definition of extreme climates in the revised manuscript. Details are listed in revision.
Revision:
Page 3 line 138-145: We added “The leaf area index (LAI) is an important biophysical variable of vegetation……”
Page 4 line 173-183: We added “These data differ in their spatial resolution, temporal resolution, and data record length (table 1) ……”
Page 6 line 186: Table 1. Data used in this study.
Page 6 line 199-219: We added “To analyze the temporal characteristics of climate extremes, such as the year and month in which they occurred, we took the maximum and minimum values of the standardized anomalies throughout the time series for each grid as the re-search indexes……”
- Authors claimed that they analyzed compound events however, it is not clear how they calculate/measure four compound extreme temperature and precipitation types/indexes?
Reply:
we defined the climate extremes by percentile. Specifically, extreme high-value events, such as extreme hot and extreme wet conditions, demonstrate that the variable was greater than the 95th percentile, and extreme low-value events, such as extreme cold and extreme dry conditions, demonstrate that the variable is less than the 5th percentile. Compound climate extremes demonstrate that both the 2 m temperature and precipitation in extreme situations. Therefore, there are 4 types of compound climate extremes, including extreme hot and wet (the 2 m temperature and precipitation are both greater than the 95th percentile), extreme hot and dry (the 2 m temperature is greater than the 95th percentile and precipitation is less than the 5th per-centile ), extreme cold and wet (the 2 m temperature is less than the 5th percentile and precipitation is greater than the 95th percentile), and extreme cold and dry (the 2 m temperature and precipitation are both less than the 5th percentile), respectively.
Revision:
Page 6 line 204-216: We added “To study the spatial characteristics of climate extremes, such as the frequency distribution, we defined the climate extremes by percentile……”
Special thanks to you for your good comments.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
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Comments |
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Title |
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Title describes the article correctly |
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Abstract |
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The abstract offers a concise and complete synthesis of the work |
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Keywords: |
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vegetation responses LAI or LAI responses |
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middle to high latitudes of 32 Asia These words are already part of the title. Change them for another |
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1. Introduction |
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The introduction adequately depicts the problem about the impacts of extreme climate and weather events on the terrestrial ecosystems. Also, the objective of the work is explicitly exposed |
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2. Material and Methods |
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4 |
134-135 |
They pointed out that these LAI products reasonably represent the global vegetation characteristics and their seasonal variability with high reliability and consistency. Who are they? |
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4-5 |
127-142 |
It is not clearly explained why two different LAI data sets were used. This paragraph must be improved. Also, another explanation that I consider necessary to introduce refers to the vegetation indicator that was used in the work. If the LAI is obtained from the NDVI values, why wasn't the original variable (NDVI) used directly to represent the vegetation instead of the LAI? There exists any special reason to choice LAI as a proxy of vegetation? |
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5 |
181 |
(-0.66)? remove |
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3. Results |
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The results obtained are presented in an orderly manner and they are analyzed in depth. |
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The figures are all necessary and facilitate the interpretation of the work. |
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4. Discussion |
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I believe that the specifications incorporated are appropriate |
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14 |
384 |
This has been demonstrated in several numerical studies. Could you cite which one of them here? |
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5. Conclusions |
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The conclusions are fully consistent with the results obtained |
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15 |
415-422 |
dry and hot (PSTL); wet and cold (PLTS); dry and cold (PSTS); wet and hot (PLTL) Write this way |
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15 |
425 |
And GIMMS LAI shows stronger responses of vegetation than the GLASS LAI. |
Author Response
Reply to Reviewer 3:
Major comments:
- Keywords: “vegetation responses” is suggested to be replaced by “LAI” or “LAI response” and “middle to high latitudes of Asia” are already part of the title. Change them for another.
Reply:
Thanks for your advices. We replaced “vegetation responses” with leaf area index based on your suggestion. Since “middle to high latitudes of Asia” is already part of the title, we deleted it.
Revision:
Keywords: extreme temperature; extreme precipitation; leaf area index
- Page 4 line 153-155: They pointed out that these LAI products reasonably represent the global vegetation characteristics and their seasonal variability with high reliability and consistency. Who are they?
Reply:
We were sorry for our carelessness. This sentence was revised.
Revision:
Page 5 line 154: Liang et al. [60] highlighted that these LAI products……
- It is not clearly explained why two different LAI data sets were used. This paragraph must be improved. Also, another explanation that I consider necessary to introduce refers to the vegetation indicator that was used in the work. If the LAI is obtained from the NDVI values, why wasn't the original variable (NDVI) used directly to represent the vegetation instead of the LAI? There exists any special reason to choose LAI as a proxy of vegetation?
Reply:
We sincerely appreciated the valuable comments. The detailed point-by-point responses are listed below.
- The results obtained from only one LAI dataset may not be sufficient to achieve the objectives of this study. To reduce uncertainty and enhance credibility in our analysis of the LAI, we applied two different satellite LAI datasets.
- We added the introduction of LAI in the section of Materials and Methods.
- Both LAI and NDVI are important biophysical variables of vegetation. However, LAI can be directly compared with land surface models and linked to its strong influence on carbon, energy, and water balance calculations (Peano et al., 2019). Our results will be useful in the simulation of climate extremes affecting vegetation. In addition, NDVI has low sensitivity at high chlorophyll content or abundant biomass (Kanke et al., 2012).
Revision:
- Page 4 line 145: To reduce uncertainty and enhance credibility in our analysis of the LAI……
- Page 4 line 138-142: The leaf area index (LAI) is an important biophysical variable of vegetation……
- Page 4 line 143-144: It has been widely used for monitoring and estimating terrestrial vegetation growth, land surface process simulation, and global change studies……
Related References:
Peano, D.; Materia, S.; Collalti, A.; Alessandri, A.; Anav, A.; Bombelli, A.; Gualdi, S. Global variability of simulated and observed vegetation growing season. J. Geophys Res Biogeosci 2019, 124, 3569-3587. https://doi.org/10.1029/ – 2018JG004881
Kanke, Y.; Raun, W.; Solie, J.; Stone, M.; Taylor, R. Red Edge as A Potential Index for Detecting Differences in Plant Nitrogen Status in Winter Wheat. J. Plant Nutr 2012, 35(10), 1526-1541. https://doi.org/10.1080/01904167.2012.689912
- Page 6 line 233: The area with the maximum GIMMS LAI and GLASS LAI were found to show increasing trends during 1982–2016 (Figure 3c), with a rate of 1.85×104 (-0.66) km2/year…… “(-0.66)” should be removed.
Reply:
We were really sorry for our careless mistakes. Thank you for your reminder. This sentence was revised.
Revision:
Page 6 line 233: with a rate of 1.85×104 km2/year…………
- Page 17 line 471: This has been demonstrated in several numerical studies. Could you cite which one of them here?
Reply:
We sincerely appreciate the valuable comments. we have added more references to support this finding.
Revision:
Page 17 line 471: This has been demonstrated in several numerical studies [39-41].
Related References:
Myneni, R. B.; Keeling, C. D.; Tucker, C. J.; Asrar, G.; Nemani, R. R. Increased plant growth in the northern high latitudes from 1981 to 1991. Nature 1997, 386, 698–702. https:/doi.org/10.1016/10.1038/386698a0
Alo, C. A.; Wang, G. L. Potential future changes of the terrestrial ecosystem based on climate projections by eight general circulation models. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 2008, 113(G1). https:/doi.org/10.1029/2007JG000528
Yu, M.; Wang, G. L.; Parr, D.; Ahmed, K. H. Future changes of the terrestrial ecosystem based on a dynamic vegetation model driven with RCP8.5 climate projections from 19 GCMs. Climatic Change 2014, 127(2), 257–271. https:/doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1249-2
- Page 17 line 505-513: dry and hot (PSTL); wet and cold (PLTS); dry and cold (PSTS); wet and hot (PLTL) Write this way.
Reply:
Thanks for your suggestion. These sentences were revised.
Revision:
Page 17 line 505-513: The most frequent compound extreme climate of temperature and precipitation was dry and hot (PSTL) followed by wet and cold (PLTS)……
Special thanks to you for your good comments.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 4 Report
This study investigates the responses of vegetation to the extreme climate using satellite observations and reanalysis data. The authors conclude that the extreme hot and/or dry conditions promoted forest growth and extreme cold and/or wet inhibited forest growth in most area of the middle to high latitudes of Asia. Some areas covered by sparse vegetation had different responses compared to the forest. Generally, I think the results are convincing. However, this study has some unclear issues, which need to be clarified by the authors. I therefore suggest the author modify this manuscript before considering its acceptance. My comments are as follows.
1. The time frequency of GLASS LAI is eight days. How to process it in the semi-monthly frequency. It is not clear in the manuscript.
2. Line 141-142. “… GIMMS LAI3g data should be preprocessed and the analysis results may be slightly different in some degree” I cannot understand the meaning of this sentence. Suggest rewording it.
3. Line 86-87. “… and even transforms terrestrial ecosystem into a carbon source.” This sentence is a little strange. Suggest rewording it.
4. Line 148-149. “The temporal coverage of land cover dataset is 1992 to present with one-year delay.” What is the meaning of the “one-year delay”?
5. Line 356. “In south-central Siberia and central China, …” The “south-central Siberia” is “southern Central Siberia”? And “central China” is not in the selected area. Also, in line 419-420. “… the area between central and eastern China” is not shown by the figures.
6. The language of the manuscript should be improved. And there are many typos. Suggest scrutinizing the whole manuscript carefully and modifying. Some examples are as follows.
(1) The word of “latitudes” should be capitalized in the tile.
(2) Line 14. “… the area with the maximum/minimum LAI increased or decreased …”. And in Line 393-394. “The area with the maximum/minimum LAI increased or decreased during 1982–2016 …” The words of “increased or decreased” are better to be “increased/decreased”.
(3) “Extremely hot …” should be “Extreme hot …” in line 20.
(4) Line 38. “… prominent coming decades.” should be “… prominent in the coming decades.”
(5) Line 181. “… with a rate of 1.85×104 (-0.66) km2/year and 0.66 km2/year, respectively…” Is there any mistake? What’s the meaning of 1.85×104 (-0.66)?
(6) Line 431. The word of “warmth” is “warm”?
(7) Line 335. “…composed mostly of by needle-leaved trees and grasslands …” The word of “of” should be removed.
(8) Line 342. “… a positive response to vegetation growth”. You mean “… a positive response of vegetation to extreme wet”?
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Reply to Reviewer 4:
This study investigates the responses of vegetation to the extreme climate using satellite observations and reanalysis data. The authors conclude that the extreme hot and/or dry conditions promoted forest growth and extreme cold and/or wet inhibited forest growth in most area of the middle to high latitudes of Asia. Some areas covered by sparse vegetation had different responses compared to the forest. Generally, I think the results are convincing. However, this study has some unclear issues, which need to be clarified by the authors. I therefore suggest the author modify this manuscript before considering its acceptance. My comments are as follows.
Major comments:
- The time frequency of GLASS LAI is eight days. How to process it in the semi-monthly frequency. It is not clear in the manuscript.
Reply:
Thanks for your valuable suggestion. We must apologize that this is not stated clearly in the section of Materials and Methods. The specific methods are as follows. For GLASS LAI, which had a temporal resolution of 8 days, we first created an empty daily dataset and then filled it with GLASS LAI data. In other words, the new dataset had the same value for every 8 days. After that, we divided each month into the first half of the month (16, 15, or 14 days) and the second half of the month (15 or 14 days) and then calculated the average of the half-month data.
Revision:
Page 5, line 176-182: We added “For the daily data and semi-monthly data, we divided each month into the first half of the month……”
- Line 161-162. “… GIMMS LAI3g data should be preprocessed and the analysis results may be slightly different in some degree” I cannot understand the meaning of this sentence. Suggest rewording it.
Reply:
The original meaning of this sentence is that GIMMS LAI has missing values on land that need to be preprocessed while GLASS LAI does not. Therefore, the results of the two sets of LAI data will have some differences. According to your suggestion, we think “and the analysis results may be slightly different in some degree” is unnecessary, so we have deleted it.
Revision:
Page 5, line 162: We deleted “and the analysis results may be slightly different in some degree.”
- Line 91-92. “… and even transforms terrestrial ecosystem into a carbon source.” This sentence is a little strange. Suggest rewording it.
Reply:
Thanks for your suggestion. This sentence has been revised.
Revision:
Page 2, line 91-92: ……drought reduces the greenness of vegetation, significantly weakens the carbon sink function of ecosystems, and even causes terrestrial ecosystems to switch from a carbon sink to a carbon source.
- Line 169-170. “The temporal coverage of land cover dataset is 1992 to present with one-year delay.” What is the meaning of the “one-year delay”?
Reply:
The “one-year delay” means that the land cover dataset is updated continuously but the data is generated with a delay of one year. For example, data for 2020 won't be available until 2021. However, this description is unnecessary for our study, so we have removed it. In addition, I checked the update of the data on the website and found that the data is updated to 2020. Therefore, I changed the “The temporal coverage of land cover dataset is 1992 to present with one-year delay” to “The temporal coverage of land cover dataset is 1992 to 2020”
Revision:
Page 5, line 169-170: The temporal coverage of land cover dataset is 1992 to 2020.
- Line 430. “In south-central Siberia and central China, …” The “south-central Siberia” is “southern Central Siberia”? And “central China” is not in the selected area. Also, in line 419-420. “… the area between central and eastern China” is not shown by the figures.
Reply:
Thank you for your professional comments. We were really sorry for our inaccurate description.
- The “south-central Siberia” is indeed “southern Central Siberia”
- For wet and cold (PLTS) climates, “central China” is “North China”. For dry and wet (PSTL) climates, “central China” is “northeastern China”.
Revision:
Page 15, line 422: The most frequent compound extreme climate in this area was PSTL (Figure 11d). It was mainly found observed between 50°N and 60°N in Asia, Central Siberia, and northeastern China.
Page 15, line 424: In southern Central Siberia……
Page 15, line 428: The second most frequent compound extreme climate was PLTS (Figure 11a), which mainly appeared in the areas south of 60°N, particularly in Kazakhstan and North China.
Page 17, line 510: Wet and cold (PLTS) climates mostly occurred mostly south of 60°N, which includes covers Kazakhstan, the northern Mongolian Highlands, and North China.
- The language of the manuscript should be improved. And there are many typos. Suggest scrutinizing the whole manuscript carefully and modifying. Some examples are as follows.
Reply:
Thanks for your advices. We are sorry for our poor writings. We worked on the manuscript for a long time and the repeated addition and removal of sentences and sections obviously led to poor readability. Based on your comments, we have made the corrections to make the unit harmonized within the whole manuscript. In addition, we also used the English editing services provided by MDPI. We really hope that the flow and language level have been substantially improved, and here we did not list all the changes but marked up in the revised paper using the “Track Changes” function.
(1) The word of “latitudes” should be capitalized in the tile.
Revision:
Title: Impacts of Extreme Climates on Vegetation in the Middle to High Latitudes of Asia
(2) Line 14. “… the area with the maximum/minimum LAI increased or decreased …”. And in Line 481. “The area with the maximum/minimum LAI increased or decreased during 1982–2016 …” The words of “increased or decreased” are better to be “increased/decreased”.
Revision:
Page 1, line 14: the area with the maximum or minimum LAI increased or decreased …
Page 17, line 481: The area with the maximum or minimum LAI increased or decreased during 1982–2016 …
(3) “Extremely hot …” should be “Extreme hot …” in line 21.
Revision:
Page 1, line 21: Extreme hot and/or dry conditions promoted forest growth…
(4) Line 40. “… prominent coming decades.” should be “… prominent in the coming decades.”
Revision:
Page 1, line 40: and this trend may become more prominent in the coming decades
(5) Line 233. “… with a rate of 1.85×104 (-0.66) km2/year and 0.66 km2/year, respectively…” Is there any mistake? What’s the meaning of 1.85×104 (-0.66)?
Reply:
It doesn't mean anything. I just forgot to delete it. We must apologize that it is due to our carelessness.
Revision:
Page 6, line 233: … with a rate of 1.85×104 km2/year and 0.66 km2/year
(6) Line 523. The word of “warmth” is “warm”?
Reply:
Yes, the word of “warmth” is “warm”.
Revision:
Page 17, line 523: This observation may suggest that extreme warm conditions promote forest growth.
(7) Line 402. “…composed mostly of by needle-leaved trees and grasslands …” The word of “of” should be removed.
Revision:
Page 14, line 402: which is mostly composed of by needle-leaved trees and grasslands
(8) Line 409. “… a positive response to vegetation growth”. You mean “… a positive response of vegetation to extreme wet”?
Reply:
Yes, I mean “it showed a positive response of the vegetation to the extreme wet”.
Revision:
Page 15, line 409: it showed a positive response of the vegetation to the extreme wet.
Special thanks to you for your good comments.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
All my points have been answered. No further comments from my side.
